Question Replacing W95/98 era PS?

[mikeford]

I've got a few OLD systems around, W95 or W98, haven't been on in years, and at least a couple of them retired due to flakeyness that I now suspect was a dying PS. None of the PS afaik are "good" ones, usually whatever came with the case. None of them need much power or any fancy features, but for practical reasons I need a replacement PS to use as my "known good" reference for testing them and extracting any old files of interest.

Are there any good old PS worth looking for, or should I stick with something new even if its 3x the needed 150w or so they need?

One or two of the old systems I may actually want to keep in a working state for some retro gaming.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Why do you need such an old machine functioning?
Cheapest $300 Walmart machine would be a huge step up. Even a $100 chrome book would be a step up other than monitor size, which I know is important.
BTW I’m a huge fan of keeping machines running as long as possible.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Find some cheaper used Antec supplies on ebay that are "tested, working"? Other than that, maybe shop some of Corsair's entry-level PSUs with rebate. Antec has a few decent new entry-level ones too.

For machines that old, I don't see the feasability of spending $60-90 each on 80Plus Gold-rated PSUs with 10-year warranties. Unless, of course, you plan to de-commission some of those PCs in a few years, and continue to use the PSUs onward until the warranty runs out or beyond.

 

[mikeford]

I want a step back to run legacy software. I have plenty of modern machines, some even running W10, but I have a huge collection of computers going back to the first 8 bit systems as well as IBM PS2, Sun etc brands. The specific systems are basically good for there era, just failed at times I was too busy to fix them rather than replace. Now I want to fix them and see what is on them, before culling the less interesting ones.

Antec sounds like a good option, and I have jumped on a Seasonic deal from Newegg, but its way more than what is needed and not something I would want to leave in an old system.

** Some of the legacy software and files I don't have on any other media, so its more a recovery plan than running on the existing old hardware.

 

[JEDIYoda]

You will find if you are using win95 of win98 that you will need to replace youre PSU with one from that era...….
See my thread -- https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/why-won-t-my-power-supply-work.2567050/